Figueiredo, Joao Baptista de Oliveira

▪ 2000

      Brazilian four-star general and politician (b. Jan. 15, 1918, Rio de Janeiro, Braz.—d. Dec. 24, 1999, Rio de Janeiro), was the last of five officers to preside over the country's government after a military coup in 1964. Figueiredo entered military school at age 10 and spent part of his youth in Argentina; his father, Gen. Euclydes Figueiredo, went there in exile after an attempt to topple a dictatorship in 1932. Figueiredo was first in his class at the military academy, the junior officers' school, and the army command and general staff school. The early part of his military career was spent as an instructor in the cavalry and in intelligence. He was promoted to colonel after the coup and took a post at the helm of the national intelligence service bureau in Rio de Janeiro. When Gen. Emilio Medici assumed the presidency in 1969, Figueiredo was appointed head of Medici's military staff. Under Pres. Ernesto Geisel, who took office in 1974, Figueiredo became head of the intelligence service and then was handpicked by Geisel to assume the presidency in 1979. Figueiredo continued the process, begun by Geisel, of relaxing the military's hold on power, and he implemented a number of economic measures—including restoration of collective-bargaining rights, devaluation of the currency, and a freeze on interest rates—in an attempt to reduce an inflation rate of 43%. Figueiredo then re-introduced the electoral process, and in 1985 he was succeeded as president by civilian José Sarney.

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▪ president of Brazil

born Jan. 15, 1918, Rio de Janeiro, Braz.

died Dec. 24, 1999, Rio de Janeiro

      four-star general and president of Brazil from 1979 to 1985.

      One of the planners of the 1964 coup that established 21 years of military rule, Figueiredo was the last in the succession of five officers chosen by the armed forces to govern Brazil as president in that period. He was an instructor specializing in intelligence in the military's advanced training schools when the coup took place. Promoted to colonel, he was immediately transferred to intelligence operations. His military career culminated with his appointment as chief of the national intelligence service under President Ernesto Geisel (Geisel, Ernesto) in 1974, a post in which he gained the reputation of “minister of silence” due to his inaccessibility and aloofness from public life.

      Hand-picked by Geisel as his successor, Figueiredo announced his intention to restore democracy to the country. He faced severe national economic problems when he took office in 1979, including an inflation rate of 43 percent and a grossly unequal distribution of income. What economic growth there was benefited only the wealthy, without affecting the standard of living of the lower classes. He responded to the situation by providing a schedule of workers' pay increases pegged to inflation, by allowing collective bargaining for the first time since the military coup of 1964, and by devaluing the currency and fixing interest rates. On the political front he signed amnesty legislation for political dissenters (although Amnesty International still cited instances of police brutality) and permitted the creation of new political parties, a move which angered the extreme right. In 1980 he demonstrated his commitment to redistribution of wealth by authorizing the expropriation of 47,000 acres from large estates in Mato Grosso do Sul to be redistributed among 1,000 dispossessed farmers. He also relaxed the censorship of the press. In contrast to his earlier image, Figueiredo adopted a more outgoing stance after he became president, appearing frequently in public. Heart trouble caused him to reduce his leadership in Brazil's democratization, but he kept its opponents in check. In 1985 he was succeeded in office by the first civilian president since 1964, José Sarney.

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